Category Archives: Al Gore

This morning I decided to look up some recent carbon dioxide production statistics. I performed a Google search and selected the Natural Resources Defense Council website, which came up first on the search (and you wondered how Google made money). The site was chock full of climate propaganda and half truths. I selected the following question from their website:

Q: What country is the largest source of global warming pollution?

A: The United States. Though Americans make up just 4 percent of the world’s population, we produce 25 percent of the carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel burning — by far the largest share of any country. In fact, the United States emits more carbon dioxide than China, India and Japan, combined. Clearly America ought to take a leadership role in solving the problem. And as the world’s top developer of new technologies, we are well positioned to do so — we already have the know-how.

Al Gore used similar data in his 2006 film, An Inconvenient Truth.

Both Al and the Environmental lobby are wrong. Big Surprise! They must be using ancient data. The data used by Mr. Gore in his 2006 released film has a 1999 copyright date. Data takes time to compile. I’d guess the actual data was probably produced using data form the mid 1990’s. 2014 data is now available .

I wish the Natural Resource Defense Council had spent a bit more on content editing and a bit less on online advertising.

The Statistica website has data from 2014. Their data shows the USA is second place with 14.7% of total manmade carbon dioxide production. China leads and has led the country chart since 2006. Their 2014 share was 23.4%, a number that has been steadily rising for over 20 years. India, another rapid grower sits in third position with 5.7%, followed by Russia (4.9%), Brazil (4.7.%), Japan(3.6%), Indonesia (2.31%), Germany (2.23%) and Korea (1.71%).

Why did Al Gore use old statistics in 2006 when he made his film and why does the USA’s largest environmental lobby still use 20 year old data today? Because it works as a fundraising tool. Potential givers want to feel important. China (and India too) have the ability to overwhelm the mathematics. Why give. We in the USA are powerless to impact the autocracy that is China.

I’d argue the data doesn’t begin to tell the full story. Population density, location and GDP all must also be considered. China and the USA are about the same size, but China has 4 times as many people and produces less than 50% of the goods the USA produces. All those people with middle class desires. Urbanization will lead to additional carbon production. Throw in GDP differences and China looks more and more like the Elephant in the room nobody talks about

China is a bit closer to the equator than the USA, which means they need to use less energy to keep warm. The USA has been reducing their carbon footprint steadily since about 2000. China continues to grow theirs at nearly 8% per year.

India is another rapid grower and that has the potential to be a perplexing problem for the climate control crowd. India is about 1/3 the size of the USA and produces a bit more than 1/3 of the USA’s total carbon dioxide. Their population is still growing rapidly which means that their carbon production will grow rapidly unless they can use much less on a per capita basis. Their current per capita use is rising from a very low level which means that India has a long runway of increased carbon production in front of them.

China’s impact is huge. India’s is growing rapidly. The USA’s potential climate impact (if you trust the UN scientists) has been declining for most of the 21st century. Who knows what will happen next. Any notion that we in the USA can change the world with rather modest changes at home seems a bit fanciful.

Perhaps the guys at the UN are wrong. Their temperature predictions for the first 15 years of the 21st century have been awful. The world has been colder than predicted. Yes surface data shows 2014 as being a warm year. Satellite data disagrees; and both land based and satellite data are lower than UN predictions made just a few years ago. Perhaps increased carbon dioxide won’t be as damaging as advertised.

China’s growth rate is slowing and they are building a bunch of new Nuclear Power Plants which should slow their emissions growth rate in the 2020’s. Maybe the elephant in the room will move more carefully a few years from now.

While I don’t really believe in signs, I must admit, the last week I spent in Honolulu provided the encouragement I needed to give Kailua-Kona a try. Honolulu was encouraging me to find someplace else to be. It had been a great 4 week stay full of Saimin, Portuguese Sausage, papaya and walks on Kailua Beach.

It all started when the good folks at the Honolulu Board of Water Supply decided to replace a water main in front of my Hawaii residence location. This 8 to 10 month long process was spectacularly noisy. Hours were spent listening to a saw cut strips in asphalt.

A few days later, on Monday January, 12th, I went for a drive to a favorite beach of mine near Kaena Point. I got caught in an 90 minute traffic mess because the city closed one lane of the Farrington Highway. 90 minutes to go a bit over a mile.

Later that evening, shortly after sunset, on a windless night, the power system got stressed by the anticipated evening peak. The utility issued a series of rolling blackouts to prevent total system failure. People watching the National Championship Football game were not pleased.

Hawaiian Electric (HE) has not constructed a new peaking power plant since 1991. The most recent plant of significant size (a 130 megawatt plant) was built by a private firm in 1992. That’s a long time without significant power additions. Plants get old, technology changes, new loads get added. The traffic mess that is Kapolei did not exist in 1992. No wonder the grid is stressed.

Hawaii needs 4 old plants to operate properly for the city to stay lit at night. Three oil fired plants owned by the utility and one owned by a private firm, AES.

AES constructed it’s plant in 1992, some 22+ years ago…and it’s…are you ready for this… coal fired with coal imported from Indonesia! This 130 megawatt plant burns an odd assortment of waste in addition to the coal. Old tires and waste motor oil provide fuel for the plant. The plant uses an old technology to clean the coal exhaust. On the plus side, it does get rid of lots of hard to handle waste, on an island that has little surplus land.

In 2010, the utility began the process of converting existing oil plants to algae based biodiesel. And in 2014, they included biomass as a future feedstock in the coal plant contract. I worry that converting existing peaking plants might put the grid at risk, should the new technology not work as well as advertised.

It’s never a good idea to be first to market using a new technology. It’s generally a good idea to go second or even third. Our optimistic nature produces rosy scenarios that are nearly impossible to meet in the real world. We fail to anticipate problems. Many expensive mistakes are made as we learn. Remember the Boeing 787 airplane, chock full of new technology. It turned out OK because Boeing had the resources and time to make it work. The project was years late and billions over budget.

This new technology plant was supposed to burn waste coal cleanly. The 300 million dollar plant was completed in 1998. It sits idle today…the victim of frequent plant failures, poor quality control during the test phase and a plethora of legal difficulties.

Hawaii politicians seem to be OK with the notion that evening power failures are part of the price Hawaii must pay for Hawaii’s clean energy policies. I don’t get it. It’s going to get worse.

Hawaiian Electric is not spending money to meet the peak demand and is spending money to stabilize the grid so that it can take more solar energy during the day. Too much solar in remote locations has destabilized the grid, causing voltage surges. This has forced the utility to limit new installations.

Generous subsidies have created a thriving solar business. When the utility limits these installations, the utility has a significant PR problem. Hawaiian Electric’s (HE) approach is to figure out ways to take more power during the day….and announce in advance when power failures are going to show up in the evening.

Spending money to expand the dirty old oil system is unpopular. Three main power plants provide the majority of Honolulu’s oil fired power. The largest is the Kahe Oil Plant on Oahu’s west shore. Between 1963 and 1981 this plant was expanded 5 times from 81 Megawatts of Power to the 661 Megawatts it has today. Facilities at this plant are over 30 years old, with many facilities over 40 years of age.

The most recent major expansion of the Hawaiian Electric Oil system was completed when the Kalaeola Cogen plant was finished in 1991. This “newer” Cogen plant added almost 300 megawatts of power between 1989 and 1991. The newest power generator in the system is 23 years old.

The third major oil fired plant, the Waiau Oil Plant provides a bit over 200 Megawatts. I can remember driving by this plant in 1960. Some equipment dates back to 1950, most of the generation was constructed in the 196o’s.

As HE approached the rolling blackout days, several HE oil plants were having difficulties and the coal plant was struggling too. Peak capacity was severely limited as the utility struggled to get the failed units back on line. No new peaking plants in over 20 years in a system that must exist without assistance from other operators. Sometimes being on an island is a bitch.

HE has been pretending, literally for years, that their peaking problem does not exist. It is only going to get worse as local politics trumps basic utility operations. Algae based biodiesel might work, but it will probably be years late and billions over budget.

Hawaii is a marvelous mixture of many food types, courtesy of the many cultures that thrive there. My favorites include:

Portuguese Sausage. I have had similar sausages made in other places, but the Hawaiian concoction is my favorite. McDonald’s serves it a a breakfast meat.

Portuguese Bean Soup. Yummy. Cinnamon’s Restaurant is my favorite place for Portuguese Bean Soup, but Cinnamon’s is in Kailua and is popular with the locals. Expect to wait a while, particularly on weekends. Lots of places make an acceptable version. Give it a try.

Teri beef, pork or chicken. Yeah, I know, it’s a Japanese dish, but it’s everywhere in Hawaii. I grew up munching on teri beef sandwiches after a day at the beach. Lunch wagons, fast food restaurants, and even relatively nice restaurants feature the stuff.

Saimin is a noodle dish similar to Ramen served in a broth with lots of other stuff thrown in. My favorite place to get Saimin is Zippy’s. Zippy’s offers both sit down and counter service. Sit down and order my personal favorite, Chicken Katsu Curry Saimin. I really like the way the curry flavors the broth. A full meal for less than $8. Zippy’s has about 5 different types of Saimin and they are all good. And Cheap.

Kalbi. Korean barbecue ribs. Yummy.

Katsu Chicken, another yummy treat courtesy of Korea.

Mahi Mahi. I like it dipped in egg batter and fried. It makes a good sandwich or a main course at dinner.

Ahi in some form. Yellow fin tuna (Ahi) is served raw as Sashimi or Poki (both are available at Costco) and cooked as sandwiches and as a main course in restaurants. I like my Ahi charred rare with a nice spicy dipping sause.

You have probably noticed a dearth of Hawaiian Food. I’m not a fan, but if you’re a first time visitor give some a try. It’s definitely different. A worthwhile experience.

Tomorrow I leave the Islands after a 3 week stay. I am ever amazed by the number of people that visit Honolulu and never leave Waikiki. Hawaii is so much more. Rent a car or book a tour. Take a city bus. But go.

And there are so many great places to visit.

The Tripadvisor Oahu top ten is a good place to start. 10 popular destinations. I’ve been to all of them at one time or another in my years spent in Hawaii. Each is a good place to visit. I haven’t been to most of them in years and years. It’s not what I do when I go to Oahu. I sight-see, eat in my favorite restaurants, and walk at my favorite places.

I like the trail inside Diamond Head. Lots of cool stuff including old WWII bunkers. It can be crowded and hot, so go early in the day.

A walk around Ala Moana Park including Magic Island (not really an island) is a short walk from Waikiki and a great place to walk in the evening. And the Friday night fireworks look good from there.

I love walking on Kailua Beach. My favorite beach in Hawaii. A trip to the Island that does not include a walk on Kailua Beach is a bit of a disappointment. Go at low tide for the best walking.

And I go mostly on weekdays. Oahu literally means The Gathering Place in Hawaiian. 80% of Hawaii’s million plus population live on Oahu. Places that are relatively quiet on weekdays are crowded with locals on weekends. Popular beaches (like Hanauma Bay) are crowded every day, but just a few miles up the road is Bellows, a beautiful beach that is nearly empty on weekdays.

Hawaii is an Island, and the perimeter roads are circular. The result, nobody seems to know which way is North. North moves around. The mountains (Mauka in Hawaiian) are to the North in Honolulu, but to the South in Kaneohe.

And the city fathers were, shall we say, creative in their use of directional labels on streets. North King Street is West of downtown is South King Street is East of downtown. East Manoa Road is East of Manoa Road, but both Manoa and East Manoa run in a northerly direction.

Local directions are given using reference points. Head Mauka or Makai (towards the ocean) or perhaps toward Diamond Head or perhaps Pearl Harbor. As one moves around the Island, the references change. Once you know where the local landmarks are, it’s easy.

Two mountain ranges run diagonally from Southeast to Northwest and there is a large central plain in between. The Koolau Mountains separate Honolulu from Kailua and the windward side. The Waianae Mountains run all along the western coast. Northeasterly trade winds dominate normal weather. The windward shore including most of of the Koolau Mountains are wet, the West shore is hot and much drier.

The map that follows has one important flaw. THERE IS NO ROAD around Kaena Point (the western most point on the island). The road has been impassable since the late 1960’s. I have no idea why it is shown as a road.

And the road across the Waianae Mountains (route 780) traverses military lands and is only open one day a year.

If you rent a car and want to view the dramatic scenery there are 3 basic choices.

Tour the East end of the Island

Visit the West shore

Tour the stuff in the middle.

My favorite relatively short one day trip covers the East end of the island. Take Kalakaua Ave. toward Diamond Head until the road ends, then follow Diamond Head Road into Kahala. Work your way up to H1 East. When the freeway ends you will be on the Kalanianiole Highway, the main road around the East end of the Island.

Possible stops include Hanauma Bay, the Blow Hole, Sandy Beach, the Makapuu Point Lighthouse, Makapuu Beach, Sea Life Park, Waimanalo Beach, Bellows Beach and Kailua town. The stretch of road from Hanauma Bay to Waimanalo is spectacularly beautiful. Pull off the road a few times and take in the view. On a clear day you can see Molokai in the distance, and if the humidity is low you can see Maui too.

I like to stop at Hanauma Bay,

just to look at the spectacular view, then stop again at some point along the road before Sandy Beach. If the surf is high, the Blow Hole is a fun choice.

Next is the Makapuu Lighthouse parking lot. The walk to the lighthouse and back takes about an hour. After a lunch in Kailua town,

Ray Nagin, the Mayor of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck the city, was just convicted of corruption. Twenty counts. All related to Katrina reconstruction contracts. I must admit, I wasn’t surprised.

Katrina is a classic example of people not preparing for a likely event simply because it is infrequent. Politics is all about immediate problems. Politicians do not do well preparing for events that only come along every 100 years or so. A relatively large hurricane struck a city adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico. A city with sections below sea level. It has happened before and it will happen again. Someday.

Katrina and Al Gore are inexorably linked in my mind, because of Mr. Gore’s film. An Inconvenient Truth linked human tragedy with climate change. Lots and lots of newsreel footage of Katrina suffering, with Mr. Gore narrating. George Bush and global warming shared the blame, according to Mr. Gore.

Mr. Gore’s approach begins with little bit of science. He then provides lots of anecdotal information. He then uses that information to support his gloom and doom climate change thesis. The science may or may not have anything to do with the subject at hand, but it seems like the two are linked together. The process works well.

The Katrina section of the film opened with a graph. The graph displayed the changes in worldwide ocean temperatures. The graph showed a rise in recent years. That graph was the only specific data provided.

Tropical systems need warm water to form. Mr Gore asserted that because the oceans are warmer, there would be more storm systems. Videos of suffering in New Orleans; pictures of suffering in Asia. Many tropical systems were featured. The storms themselves were all the proof Mr. Gore needed.

Multiple problems immediately come to mind.

Global average ocean temperature is a bad proxy. Most warming since the end of the Little Ice some 250 years ago has occurred in temperate and Arctic locations. The Tropics have been remarkably stable.

The IPCC 2007 Synopses Report, released a year after An Inconvenient Truth, called tropical cyclone data inconclusive. Mr. Gore’s favorite UN agency contradicted him in their most recent report.

Mr. Gore’s ocean temperature chart went back to the 1940’s. Ocean data before the 1980’s must have been a wild guess because before that date very little data existed.

But Mr. Gore’s central problem is this; statistical data does not support his premise. Tropical systems have not been becoming more frequent. In the years since his film was released, worldwide activity has decreased by a small amount. Globally, tropical systems have been surprisingly stable for at least 40 years.

How do I know this?

Scientists use ACE (The Global Tropical Cyclone Accumulated Cyclone Energy) to track worldwide total tropical cyclone activity. This data takes into consideration both the strength and the number of cyclones all over the world. It’s a mathematical way of calculating the yearly impact tropical systems have on our environment. 24 month running sums are plotted.

Here it is:

Forty years of data, no trend. Unfortunately the real world and the world of global climate politics are completely different places. In 2005, when Katrina was devastating New Orleans, man caused global climate change was supposedly causing bigger and nastier storms including Katrina.

Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines late last year. Global climate change was an oft stated source of the devastation. Haiyan was a big storm, but not unprecedented and not unexpected. 6 to 9 typhoons strike the Philippines in a typical season.

A typhoon struck the Philippines in September of 1881. It is estimated that 20,000 people in the Philippines died and thousands more died in Viet Nam. It was the most devastating tropical storm in recorded history. More tropical cyclones strike the Philippines than any other populated place on earth.

Mr. Obama, in his State of the Union address, blamed drought in California on man caused climate activity. A recent study disagrees:

Through studies of tree rings, sediment and other natural evidence, researchers have documented multiple droughts in California that lasted 10 or 20 years in a row during the past 1,000 years — compared to the mere three-year duration of the current dry spell. The two most severe megadroughts make the Dust Bowl of the 1930s look tame: a 240-year-long drought that started in 850 and, 50 years after the conclusion of that one, another that stretched at least 180 years

Katrina was a category 3 storm when it hit New Orleans, Haiyan was a big storm, but others have been bigger and the drought in the West has happened before. The Mayan culture disappeared some 600 years ago, presumably due to over population and a change in the climate.

Maybe, just maybe, Nature is simply being Nature. Some climate change might simply be a Natural Event.

Sunday’s paper included an article on the acidification of the oceans, and another on the changed political world associated with smoking cigarettes. I sat in my easy chair, and I let my mind wander. Almost immediately, Chicken Little and Al Gore popped into my head. It makes sense, sort of, really, it does.

I have disliked Mr. Gore for a long time, and the article on smoking brought back old memories. Mr. Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, is probably where my smoking Al Gore memories began. The film discussed skeptics and the smoking lobby in a way that tried to make one interchangeable with the other. I took it personally.

According to Mr. Gore, I must be immoral, unethical or stupid since I don’t see the world his way. I find his actions oddly suspicious and, dare I say it…unethical. Why does Al Gore seem to feel a need to attack those that disagree with him? He has equated skeptics to people who think the Apollo missions were faked.

Let’s review how Mr. Gore attacked climate skeptics in his film.

He began by showing how he was fooled by the evil smoking lobby. How he grew tobacco on his farm until his sister died of lung cancer in 1984. I thought Mr. Gore was about 20 years late for the anti smoking party.

He then used some statistical gymnastics to “prove” that there was a consensus in science. Everybody that was anybody in science agreed with him. The science was conclusive. Earlier in the film he made the point that conventional wisdom is frequently wrong in science. Most scientists will admit there is no such thing as consensus in science. Doubt is a part of science.

People that disagree with him could not possibly have any factual basis for their argument. They must have an ulterior motive.

The only explanation was that these people were casting doubt and profiting by this effort. And as Mr. Gore then noted, we have all seen this one before….

It is followed by a quote from a smoking lobbyist recommending doubt as a strategy.

Casting doubt is a part of the scientific process. Mr. Gore demonstrated an ignorance of the way science works and personally insulted everyone that disagreed with him. Why? To convince the audience that skeptics have no credibility. Come on Al, argue the science.

I found the character assassination unwarranted and uncalled for. Why the smoking references? The two (smoking and carbon dioxide) are very different subjects.

Smoking is an addictive habit with virtually no beneficial offsets. Carbon dioxide is a building block of life. No carbon dixode, no plants. As carbon dioxide increases it causes changes in our environment. Some changes are good, and some are bad. Some carbon dioxide is good, too much is bad, but how much is too much?

A difficult question…and there is no consensus, no single answer.

Al Gore was not the first and he will not be the last to try to win his argument by attacking the credibility of his opponent. It is a normal political activity…that does not belong is science. Ahhh, if only it were so. The argument has been a recurring one for decades. The skeptic/smoking talking point seems to be everywhere. It’s like everybody in the global climate game has the same script.

Let’s talk Chicken Little.

The Oceans suck up carbon dioxide. As the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air increases, carbon dioxide increases in the sea. This presumably causes rapidly accelerating changes in the surface ecosystem of the oceans. I have read several articles on the subject. It certainly sounds plausible, the ecosystem might be in danger? Unfortunately, I find myself distrusting the science because of one simple problem. History.

Climate experts have been spouting gloom and doom since the 1980’s. And at least so far, the sky is not falling.

UN IPCC predictions of doom have been around since the first Climate Assessment was published in 1992. A strong El Nino in 1998 made these guys look positively brilliant. And then as the 21st century began, the climate gloom parade developed growing pains.

The predictions of accelerating warming failed to show up. The world stopped warming in 1998.

The Mathematics of the Hockey Stick were successfully challenged

Scientists got caught cooking temperature numbers in Climate-gate. The e-mails also displayed an arrogance and disdain for those that disagreed.

The IPCC 2007 Synopses predicted erroneously that the Himalaya Glaciers would be gone 30 years. Their current guess, 400 years. As a part of the admission, the IPCC was forced to acknowledge some sloppy vetting practices.

In 2006 a skeptic found huge errors in NASA climate data, lowering temperatures for the first 6 years of the 21st century.

In 2009 Al Gore predicted incorrectly that the Arctic would be ice free by 2013, a year when the Arctic Ice actually grew. 2012 was a big year for ice loss, but a cool summer in 2013 caused at least a temporary change.

The sky could start falling today or tomorrow, and Chicken Little could be right. But I cannot help but think:

Mr. Gore spent lots of time talking about Arctic Ice in his 2006 pseudo documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth. We got to see Al ride on a Nuclear Submarine and watch as he saw first hand how the Navy measured ice thickness in the Arctic.

Sometimes it’s good to be Vice President.

Mr. Gore talked about how he was able to use his influence to get very important confidential Arctic Ice data released. He then provided the data in graph form. Mr. Gore narrated while the graph was displayed. He said that the ice had been reduced by 40% in 40 years. It was catchy and easy to remember. What a story.

But was it true?

No. Well I’m sure he rode on the sub and the Navy has data. Most everything else is simply a part of his story. And it’s a good story.

Mr. Gore (in the film) presented a charts that showed a steady decline in the ice mass in the Arctic. He lectured to the audience while the slide was being displayed. He claimed the ice had decreased 40% in 40 years. Here’s the chart:

Mr. Gore’s chart says the ice declined by 1.5 million square kilometers from a base of a bit less than 14. I’ll help Mr. Gore with the arithmetic. 1.5/13.7 = 11%.

11% in 35 years is not exactly 40% in 40 years. Mr. Gore’s careless use of data really is old news. Why, one might wonder, am I bringing this up now?

Well I always suspected the entire calculation was a wild ass guess but I didn’t have good independent confirmation. I suspected Sub based data would be spotty and incomplete. But I wasn’t sure. Now I am confident the entire section of the film was a fabrication (except for the submarine ride). A good story and nothing else.

Visit the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) web site. They provide lots of statistical information about ice in the Arctic (and Greenland and the Antarctic too). The NSIDC has this to say about Arctic Ice thickness:

While satellite observations have shown a decline in Arctic Ocean sea ice extent since the late 1970s, sea ice is highly mobile, and a decrease in extent does not necessarily imply a corresponding decrease in ice volume. Observations of thickness (which allows calculation of volume) have been limited, making it difficult to estimate sea ice volume trends. The European Space Agency (ESA) CryoSat satellite was launched in October 2010 and has enabled estimates of sea ice thickness and volume for the last three years.

The best information is only 3 years old. Wow. Everything before that is a guess or so says The National Snow and Ice Data Center. These University of Colorado scientists are the recognized experts. Mr. Gore released his film in May of 2006. Most of his data ended before 2005.